


Little Illusions

by sophinisba



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003), Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Genre: 100-1000 Words, 5 Things, Background Het, Background Slash, Community: waymeet, Drabble Sequence, Gen, POV Female Character, Post-Quest, The Shire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-31
Updated: 2010-01-31
Packaged: 2017-10-06 21:31:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five things Sam believes about Frodo that (Rosie knows) aren't true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Illusions

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Take Five challenge at the Waymeet community on LJ, Jan. 2010. Thanks to Baranduin for betaing.

Sam likes having company over, especially relatives of Frodo's who used to spend time here in the old days. He likes having them remark how it looks good as new. "Good as old, you mean," he'll answer proudly. But Rosie's noticed the things Frodo compliments are the new ones: the fledgling plants and garden tools in the front room, the elanor blossom Rosie pressed in glass and hung in a kitchen window, the crib and rocking chair in the warmest of the old guest bedrooms. He loves Bag End because it's Sam and Rosie's home now, not because it's his.

Sam also likes it when Frodo's relatives come over because he thinks Frodo must prefer the company of Tooks and Brandybucks to that of Cottons and Gamgees. Sam reminds Rosie at least once a week how grateful they should be that Mr. Frodo allowed them to move in. Rosie knows Frodo loves seeing his travelling companions and hearing their stories and songs (the same ones every time – Rosie likes hearing them too), but she's also seen how carefully he holds himself in the presence of other gentlehobbits, how easily he relaxes when it's just the three of them at home.

He relaxes even more when it's just the two of them. Last month Sam was at Pincup for a few days on forestry work, and he worried about how they'd eat, with Rosie so pregnant and tired, and Frodo a bachelor who'd never learned to cook. "He likes taking care of me so well, he's never believed I could care for myself," Frodo said, laughing, as he stuffed the chicken with pieces of dried bread and fruit. Rosie savoured every bite of the tender meat, the subtle seasonings. She knew Sam wouldn't let Frodo cook again once he got back.

That was the night Rosie asked Frodo if he'd ever kissed another boy, and Frodo said yes, there'd been Merry and a few others. Rosie asked if there was another he'd wanted, and Frodo said yes and they smiled rather than speak, because he knew she knew the rest. Sam believes Frodo will marry and the four of them will live here with all their children, but Frodo had lived in the Shire to the age of fifty without taking a lass to bed. Rosie had known long before they went away that he didn't care for women that way.

Sam believes everything can go on from here just the way it has up to now, there and back and on to the next thing. A quest, a battle, a marriage, a child, a whole life in the order it's supposed to come. But Rosie's got a baby growing inside her and she knows there's no going forward according to plan, no going back once you've lived it. Frodo's not the hobbit he was before he left, just as she'll never again be a maid once she's a mother. But she'll let Sam believe it until Frodo tells him otherwise.


End file.
